Michael got me through the darkest days of my life when I didn’t want to live

Denise Fergus

He has to keep texting her to say he is all right and she cannot sleep until he comes home safe.

On the 20th anniversary of the murder, Michael Fergus, 19, has revealed how mum Denise worries and says he cannot forgive the killers.

Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, who were both ten at the time, abducted James, two, from a shopping centre in Bootle, near Liverpool, in 1993 and led him to a railway line where they tortured and killed him.

They were released on licence in 2001 after serving eight years.

Unemployed Michael has never been on a bus or train alone or left his home city without a relative.

Denise is on a mission to keep him safe and prefers her son to have friends over to their fortress-style home.

Michael said: “If I stay out a bit later than I have said I feel guilty.

“It is terrible to think I have an older brother I’m never going to see, meet or talk to.

“I can never have a drink with him or do all the normal things brothers do.

“I never knew James but he’s been with me throughout my life.

“Mum always talked about him and still does but we talk about the happy memories she has of his short life, not what happened to him, because she doesn’t want to burden us with that darkness.”

Speaking about Venables and Thompson, Michael added: “It upsets me to think two ten-year-olds could do that to my brother.

“I will never understand it and can never forgive them but I’m not consumed with hate or revenge. I just want to get on with my life and not sink to their level.”

Denise, 45, said: “Michael got me through the darkest days of my life when I didn’t want to live. He gave me the strength to carry on. He wasn’t a replacement because I could never replace James.”